This statistic shows the leading market research companies worldwide in 2017, by global research revenue. German company GfK had global research revenues of 1.65 billion U.S. dollars.
Market research companies - additional information
Market research is an important business strategy involving the gathering of information about an organization’s target market. In terms of global research revenue, U.S. company Nielsen Holdings N.V. was the leading market research company worldwide with revenues of 6.17 billion U.S. dollars. With headquarters in both New York and the Netherlands, Nielsen specializes in consumer behavior and employed over 10,000 full-time staff in the U.S. in 2017.
The second largest market research company in terms of global research revenue was Kantar. Kantar Group is a UK-based international network of 12 companies, including Millward Brown and IMRB International. In 2017, Kantar’s research revenue amounted to four billion U.S. dollars. Another European leader, and fourth in the global ranking, was Ipsos with research revenue of 1.97 billion U.S. dollars. The largest share of this well-known international market research company’s revenue was generated in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2017.
The global revenue of market research exceeded 45.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, the vast majority of which came from Europe and North America. In the United States, market research revenue exceeded 20.2 billion U.S. dollars in that year. The leading ten market research companies in the U.S. employed almost 29,300 people in 2017.
